The rendition will be part of a forthcoming tribute featuring 16 artists performing songs from the band’s 1984 live album Stop Making Sense
Paramore released their take on Talking Heads‘ hit single “Burning Down the House” on Tuesday as part of a forthcoming Stop Making Sense tribute album.
The cover features frontwoman Hayley Williams belting out “Strange but not a stranger/I’m an ordinary guy/Burning down the house,” and taking on the iconic song that David Byrne once called “an expression of liberation, to break free from whatever was holding you back.” (Bryne also noted the lyrics had “no logical, linear connection,” adding, “I simply combined aphorisms and nonsequiturs that had an emotional connection.”)
Last year, A24 released a restoration of Talking Heads’ 1984 pivotal concert film Stop Making Sense and later announced that it would roll out a tribute record featuring 16 artists performing songs from the band’s setlist of their live album. Paramore teased their collaboration with A24 and the band earlier this month with a trailer. Directed by AJ Gibboney and Paramore’s Zac Farro, the clip sees Williams receiving a package in the mail containing the big suit replicating the one Byrne wears in the original album artwork.
Earlier on Tuesday, SZA confirmed in an interview with Apple Music that she was working on new music with Paramore. Williams spoke to Rolling Stone last year, and in a previously unreleased part of the interview, said the two have wanted to work on a song that’s “alternative-leaning.”
“I’m such a fan of her voice. And what I love about her voice is that she can easily slide around genre as well,” Williams told Rolling Stone. “Like she has plenty of songs throughout her catalog that feel very alternative to me and feel a little bit Strokes-y, in a way. She just has that thing.”